diff --git a/device_tree.c b/device_tree.c
index 6e06320830..a24ddff02b 100644
--- a/device_tree.c
+++ b/device_tree.c
@@ -148,6 +148,7 @@ static void read_fstree(void *fdt, const char *dirname)
     d = opendir(dirname);
     if (!d) {
         error_setg(&error_fatal, "%s cannot open %s", __func__, dirname);
+        return;
     }
 
     while ((de = readdir(d)) != NULL) {